Food MemoirEssay Preview: Food MemoirReport this essayEating it when it first comes out of the oven is an extraordinary experience. The steam rises, omitting a delightful aroma that will make any mouth water. The gooey pools of cinnamon and brown sugar juxtapose mountains of crusty goodness; sit atop a moist, firm cake. Sliding a knife through the warm cake in order to retrieve a piece from the center; which is the most delectable part; promotes anticipation for the moment when the cinnamon, brown sugar and cake, can touch the lips. Placing a piece in the mouth and feeling its soft yet crunchy texture as well as tasting its sweet and spicy flavors, creates a wonderful feeling of love and joy. Eating it with a cup of piping hot coffee makes the dish even more enjoyable.
As far back as I can remember my mother had always made coffee cake. My parents are both teachers so when we would get enough snow to where Anne Arundel County Public Schools would call a snow day, my mother would get up early and make the family coffee cake for breakfast. As a child I remember waking up to the smell of the sweet, spicy treat and knowing that there was no school that day. This would automatically create a felling of over-exuberance just knowing that I did not have to go to school. Secondly, I would be ecstatic knowing that I could play outside in the snow all day. This creates memories of playing with my neighborhood friends and building huge snow people, snow forts and playing commando with snow balls.
I remember running downstairs in my pajamas to grab a piece of coffee cake, but the piece would have to be out of the center since that is where the cinnamon and sugar collected into puddles of sweet heaven. The coffee cake next to the edge of the pan was too crunchy for me so I always left those pieces for my father and sister. I would put my center piece of coffee cake on a small plate, pour myself a glass of milk (now that Im older, its coffee) and run into the living room to watch weekday cartoons; or the dreadful news if my dad had beat me into the living room. I recall eating my coffee cake very slowly in mouse-like bites in order to savor my piece. However, my milk would be gone in a flash since the cake had a tendency to stick to my teeth and I needed to wash it down.
After I had eaten my coffee cake and chugged my milk, I would run upstairs, and grab my snowsuit and boots. I then dashed downstairs so that my mom or dad could help me bundle up. Next, I would run outside where I knew any number of my neighborhood friends would already be romping in the snow. We would play all day or until our fingers and toes were so numb we thought they might fall off.
To this day my mother still makes her family famous coffee cake on snow days. Although now that Im older, it doesnt quite hold the same excitement that it once did since, even though it might be a snow day for schools, I still have to work. However, the tradition that she created will always hold a special place in my heart.
While my specific food memoir created an emotion of joy and love, food can also create empowerment, bind groups and generate community boundaries, as well as cause conflict and reflect social and economic status. Editor of “Through the Kitchen Window”, Arlene Voski Avakian has provided us with examples of societies, and especially womens, experiences with food and cooking.
Food has a way of creating empowerment for certain individuals in the way the food is prepared and served. People can take advantage of food by using it as a tool to help them make money, which gives them power. In the short piece, “New Directions”, by Maya Angelou, Mrs. Annie Johnson gains her power by making a life for her and her children by selling food. Annies husband had left her and her children to study religion and possibly take up with the preachers single daughter, unbeknownst to Annie. Her husband took all of their money, leaving her with a one bedroom home. Annie did not want to leave her children in the care of a stranger while she worked as a domestic, one of the few jobs an African American woman was able to find at the time. Instead, she set up a stand on the side of the road to sell meat pies to the gentlemen laborers. Her business was slow moving at first but she was determined to provide for her family. Soon, her pies became so popular that she built a roadside stand to sell out of. Once she was empowered and had enough money, she turned her meat pie stand into a small store where she sold such items as syrup, canned goods, coal, and even leather soles for shoes. Her knack for cooking helped her to create a successful business for herself and helped to provide for herself and her children.
Another example of empowerment in Avakians collection of memoirs is the story by Clare Coss, entitled, “My Mother/Her Kitchen”. In this memoir, Clare recalls how much her mother enjoyed cooking. Clare shares with the reader, how her mother wanted to be a nurse; however, her father would not permit it because he did not want his daughter working so closely with strange men. Instead, Clares mother became a teacher, which was not a profession that she loved. Once she was married and had children, Clares mother made cooking and caring for them her passion. She used her cooking to empower herself since she was so unhappy with her career. While Clares mother used her cooking to empower her, Clare saw her mothers cooking as a means of conflict.
Food is also a source of conflict for many people. It can also bring families together which in turn can surge the existing conflict, making the table a virtual battlefield. Clare fought with her mother over food because her mother tried to nourish her athletic daughter. Clare has a personal conflict with food, as many women do, so a constant refusal to eat or gorge on her mothers cooking became a point of contention between the two of them. Sally Bellerose, author of “Gravy”, also encounters a conflict with food and the dinner table. Sally, a lesbian and a vegetarian finds that her mother just doesnt understand what it means to be a vegetarian. Sally explains that her mother makes the rules
Mormons: ————————
In a previous post from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints the topic of food and marriage, I mentioned that although most people think that the Bible gives specific laws, Mormon law defines different things. This change is only part of the evolution into what’s known as the Ordained House of Mormon, or “Mormonism”. The Mormon church is not unique among its followers in this. They’ve been getting pretty popular. My favorite Mormon, Bishop Joseph Eberhard, has been speaking about the Mormon Ordained House of the Mormons, or “Ordained House” in the church: http://www.minutes.org/article/mormon_house_ordained_house.asp
“Ordained House” means a house of one. The priesthood in Mormon teachings is given to all, but for every priesthood holder, there must be an ordained family, a quorum of one, or members-only. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints allows anyone to live one.
There are many different religious beliefs out there, but some beliefs are not universal (if any) and/or don’t exist in the Mormon faith. For instance, there is the non-canonical Mormon belief that there was no prelunar priesthood. There are also other religious beliefs that do exist, in which there are all the same beliefs. However, they are not universal in the LDS teachings.
Joseph Smith taught:
So what is the law if two things happen to the one that has the more influence, the greater the influence? But the more influence the less influence the lesser the influence it gives the one in the matter. For if we speak of the same thing as the law, then it is true that it will be different: it will not be true that this law will have more influence, because it will be different when more or less.
So one in two people have influence to some extent, or, more likely, none to others.
And this means that we must not assume that we live as fully equal as everyone else.
The Ordained House of the Mormons are just like the other religious sects.
And, even if we look in the mirror, we can still see some similarities.
There are some differences regarding the role and importance of men in the LDS church, as well as the position and attitude that people of each and every lineage have.
While the Ordained House is called the “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” for many things that it differs from, some of these differences can be explained by the scriptures:
One of the things common to all Latter-